Fox Glacier and Queenstown

We're in Queenstown and connected again...

Yesterday we spent the morning on a hike on Fox Glacier - awesome!  This was very different from Athabasca Glacier in Canada.  We both remember that as having an icy granular snow surface, with some fairly large flat spaces.  This was hard ice, making crampons absolutely necessary.  There were lots places where the guided had to chop steps into the steep parts with an ice axe.  We saw one moulin cave, with blue ice.  Lovely.

Later in the afternoon, we headed toward Queenstown via the Haast Pass Heritage Highway.  This sealed our opinion that, on a beauty scale of 1-10, the South Island is a 12!  Spent the night at a Dept. of Conservation campground, Pleasant Flat, right on a river.

Today we actually went through the Gates of Haast, the part of the pass that is most tightly squeezed between two mountains.  In less that one km. from our campground, we stopped twice to take photos.  In less than three km., we saw 5 high waterfalls, all in areas too narrow to stop the van.  Other stuff from today:
The tree line is so dramatic.  Looks like the leader of the trees drew a horizontal line and said,  "Okay, guys, nobody sets any roots past here."
Some of the mountains go straight up from the road.  Can't imagine building it.
Passed Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea, long bodies of water that run parallel to each other, with a mountain between them.
There was a huge area of vineyards and fruit orchards where we got wonderful apricots, peaches, plums and apples.
Karawau Gorge with beautiful green water.
Bungy watching - absolutely no desire to jump from that bridge!

Queenstown is in a fantastic setting on Lake Wakatipu.  The focus here is on adrenalin junkies and every other store is related to some extreme sport.  We won't be spending much time here.  Checked out a waterside craft show and walked along the shore.  Unfortunately, obscenely loud jet boats kind of wreck the scene.